Colonel Reams arrived in all the glory of his scarlet coat, dress sword at his side, a big, red-coated slab of aging muscle. He wouldn’t think of himself as a messenger boy, but that was his role. “Liverpool wants to talk to you.”
Reams might as well have capered in triumph. Cummings had something clever planned, and Reams knew what it was. The Prime Minister was involved.
Interesting.
Nothing like walking into a trap to set the blood pumping. Plots and machinations littered the ground like caltrops. The game was in play.
He signaled Pax to move in closer to Owl. “Keep an eye on things,” he told Doyle.
“I’ll keep an eye on you instead.” Doyle slipped a thumb into his fob pocket and turned to be at his side.
Reams blocked the way. “I was told to bring Hawkhurst, not you.”
Doyle didn’t twitch a muscle. He just transformed from a large, indolent gentleman enjoying himself at a party into Lord William Doyle Markham, Viscount Markham, heir to the Earl of Dunmott, cousin, in one degree or other, to everybody important in the room, and married into one of the great aristocratic houses of Europe.
And him . . . he let himself be Sir Adrian Hawkhurst, who was God knew what, from God knew where, but rich, powerful, and at home in this ballroom.
Possibly Reams recalled the reputation for deadliness hovering over the men he confronted.
It was time to behave like an aristocrat. Time to be damn-your-eyes arrogant. He said, “Get the hell out of my way.” He and Doyle walked past Reams like a jackass in uniform didn’t even exist.
They didn’t hurry. Reams got left in their wake anyhow.
Liverpool beckoned when they got close, inviting them in. “Hawkhurst. Markham. Sorry to interrupt your evening.”
“Sir.” The Head of the British Intelligence Service met fairly often with the Prime Minister. So far, they’d dealt well. Liverpool liked to get reports face-to-face. Liked to ask questions. He understood there was just a startling flock of secrets that never got set down on paper.
Nods exchanged all around the circle. He knew these men, some better than others. On every face, he saw the kind of avid curiosity given to carriage wrecks.
The Prime Minister was an amiable man in private, pig-stubborn politically, and nobody’s fool. He was not pleased at the moment, which was likely to be bad news for somebody. His big twitchy eyebrows drew together. “Tell me about these two dead Frenchmen.”
Cummings made placating gestures. “I’m not accusing Hawkhurst. I am entirely convinced of his integrity. I merely raise the question of whether he should temporarily step down from his position until—”
Liverpool interrupted, “I want to hear what he has to say. Well, Hawkhurst?”
Cummings planted his cane on the marble floor, set both hands to the head of it, and gloated in a genteel manner.
Well, well, well. This was the duel. This was facing an enemy, weapons drawn. Him against Cummings. High stakes. He couldn’t grin and rub his hands. Instead, he drew himself up, stiff and offended. “What do you mean, ‘step down?’ ”
Cummings gave an elegant tilt to the cane. “In light of certain allegations that have been brought against you, it would be wisest if the government replaced you with someone outside your—” Cummings didn’t get to finish.
“Tell me about the dead men,” Liverpool said.
The Head of the British Service played political games as well the Great Game of spying. This was the cross-and-jostle work of British politics. He let himself look exasperated, with a dash of mysterious spicing it up. “There have been two deaths, both French émigrés. They’re being investigated by Bow Street. The first murder—”
“The stabbings are the work of the same man,” Cummings said quickly. “He—”
Liverpool snapped, “Let him talk.”
Good. Liverpool wasn’t on Cummings’s side. Not necessarily on his side, either, but not on Cummings’s.
“Stabbed. Yes. We know a good bit about the circumstances.” He paused. The circle of men leaned forward, listening. Nothing like murder to entertain the nobility. “There’s more to it than brutal murder.”
“What do you mean?” That was Castlereagh. You could be foreign secretary and still hungry for the details of violent death.
Time to lift the corner of the curtain and reveal some shadow. Damn, he should have been a street performer. “The same method was used in both cases. One stroke to the heart.” He jerked his fist upward, suddenly. “It takes timing and skill and—I hate to say it—practice. We’re dealing with an expert.”
Castlereagh muttered, “Cowardly. Cowardly work.”
“In London, you say?” That was an MP from Suffolk.
“What’s the world coming to when there’s bloody murder in London?”
Men die worse than that in London every day, in Whitechapel and St. Giles. “Bow Street called us in because of the connection with France. We’ve learned that both the dead men were former French Secret Police. They left France during the Revolution, changed their names, and set up in London as shopkeepers.”
Reams, who’d been hanging around the outskirts, shouldered forward. “Should have been hanged the day they arrived.” One man raised an eyebrow. Liverpool looked annoyed. Reams plowed on, oblivious. “Too many damn French in England anyway. The war’s over, but they’re still stirring up trouble.”
Ass. Didn’t he know these men had ties and ties again to France? Blood, marriage, friendship. He paused to let the idiocy of Reams sink in, then went on. “We think the murderer is French, too, from the method. The knives used—”
“They’re your bloody knives.” Reams didn’t have the sense to keep his mouth closed. “Your name’s on them, for God’s sake. The initials A and H. Do you think you can stand here and pretend not to know?”
Noblemen are born knowing how to freeze impertinence. He’d had to learn. “I beg your pardon.”
“Your knives. I’ve seen them, you murdering little—”
“Enough.” He rapped it out. He lifted ice from inside his belly and put it in his voice. “I’ve had enough of this. Silence!”
Reams didn’t dare—didn’t quite dare—to answer back.
“There’s a superficial resemblance to knives used in overseas operations a decade ago. If you had military experience in the field,” he looked deliberately up and down the uniform, “or if you’d taken two minutes to examine the knives, the differences would be obvious.”
“I’ll be damned if—”
He cut it off. “That’s enough, Colonel. If one of my men went off half-cocked like that, I’d break him to sergeant. Be glad you don’t answer to me.”
He turned his back on Reams. “The knives are the crux of the matter.” He gathered the group with his eyes. They were all listening. “The blades are marked L’Atelier de Paris. That makes them very possibly French Military issue. French steel.” He glanced scathingly at Reams. “Not British.”
Reams wasn’t in a position to contradict, not knowing French steel from Italian sausage.
“A quarrel between Frenchmen?” Liverpool offered.
“Not as simple as that, unfortunately. The knives are engraved on the hilt, yes. But not AH. The letters are N and B—”
Castlereagh understood instantly. “The devil you say.”
“NB for Napoleon Bonaparte. The knives were left at the scene as a warning. These are undoubtedly political murders. We’re looking at French revolutionary groups operating in London. There are still fanatics out there.”
There were murmurs of agreement. Significant glances back and forth. Napoleon might be an old man, embittered and sick, exiled to a remote outpost in the North Atlantic, but his name was still imperial. Every one of these powerful lords had been afraid of Napoleon’s Grande Armée.
Cummings knew he’d been outmaneuvered. What he’d seen in the evidence boxes at Bow Street was gone now. The face under the graying hair was pale as a fish belly. His mouth stretched in a tight smile, holding back rage.